Impact of Helicobacter pylori eradication on refractory thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic HCV awaiting antiviral therapy

The possibility of delaying treatment of HCV due to severe thrombocytopenia is challenging. This study aimed to detect the prevalence of active helicobacter infection as a claimed cause of thrombocytopenia in a cohort of Egyptian patients with chronic active HCV awaiting combined anti-viral therapy. The study included 400 chronic HCV patients with thrombocytopenia. Laboratory investigations included liver function tests, real time quantitative PCR, reticulocytic count, ESR, ANA, bone marrow aspiration, measurement of anti-helicobacter antibodies, and helicobacter stool antigen. Positive cases for active H. pylori were given the standard triple therapy for 2 weeks. Helicobacter stool antigen was detected 4 weeks after termination of therapy and the change in platelet count was detected 1 month after eradication. A total of 248 out of 281 seropositive patients for H. pylori (88.3 %) showed positive stool antigen (p = 0.01). Eradication was achieved in 169 (68.1 %) patients with platelet mean count 114.9 ± 18.8 × 10³/μl with highly significant statistical difference from pretreatment value (49.7 ± 9.2 × 10³/μl, p = 0.000). Seventy-nine patients were resistant to conventional triple therapy and given a 7-day course of moxifloxacin-based therapy; 61 patients responded (77.1 %) with mean platelet improvement from 76.4 ± 17.4 × 10³/μl to 104.2 ± 15.2 × 10³/μl (p = 0.000). The non-responders showed no improvement in their platelet count (74.6 ± 20.5 vs. 73.6 ± 15.3 × 10³/ul, P = 0.5). Eradication of active H. pylori in HCV augments platelet count and enhances the early start of antiviral therapy.